The present invention relates generally to machine noise suppression and more particularly to improved machines of the type having cam driven traverse mechanisms, such as coning machines. The invention is characterized by low noise and vibration generation, and it may be embodied in new machines or in modifications to prior art machines.
Coning machines, widely used in the textile industry, are typical of a larger class of machine employing a traverse rod or other traversing element carrying a small roller or other follower that is confined in a groove of a rotating cam or otherwise subjected to a back-and-forth camming action. The rotating cam groove, or the like, enforces a substantially linear back-and-forth motion upon the traverse rod or other traversing element. Impacts made by such mechanisms under typical production operating conditions of high speed and close spacing between machines, characteristically produce airborne noise levels that are hazardous to the hearing of operating personnel and others employed in the area. Such impacts also cause wear in the working parts and excessive impulsive loading upon the driving gear train which causes wear and fatigue in the gears, particularly when plastic gears are used as a means for aiding noise reduction. Vibrations from such impacts can also travel through the machine structure and generate noise at other machine parts.
To illustrate the scope of the problem, the textile coner, a machine which rotates a cardboard cone while feeding a textile filament or the like onto the cone via a traversing guide, is normally used in large numbers closely spaced in a production area, and under these conditions the resulting combined noise exceeds the noise limits of the United States Occupational Safety and Health Act standards. There are several hundred thousand of such machines extant.
Accordingly, it is an important object of the invention to provide traversing machines with means for reducing the above-described impact noise and vibration generation.
It is a further and more specific object of the invention to achieve the preceding object with coning machines meeting the noise limits of the Occupational Health and Safety Act standards under normal production operating speeds and configuration.
It is a further object of the invention to avoid interference with basic machine designs and coning performance consistent with one or both of the preceding objects.
It is a further object of the invention to provide low cost and simple low noise, traversing means consistent with one or more of the preceding objects.
It is a further object of the invention to achieve one or more of the preceding objects with noise traversing construction which is reliable, reduces wear and permits faster machine operation.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a low noise traversing method which is simple and effective consistent with one or more of the preceding objects.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a retrofit capability for existing machines, as well as improved low noise designs for new machines, consistent with one or more of the preceding objects.